Valley softball pulls out CC semi

Lebanon Valley s Steffani Secola, not visible, is mobbed by her teammates after slugging the go-ahead three-run home run in LVC's 4-3 victory against Alvernia in the Commonwealth Conference playoffs. The win lifted Lebanon Valley into today s conference title game. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG)

ANNVILLE - "Ya gotta believe," the late Tug McGraw may have been compelled to state if he had been seated in the Lebanon Valley College softball team's dugout on Saturday around high noon.

Suffice it to say, the ex-Mets and Phillies relief pitcher's famous words of inspiration would have been echoed by the 17 kids in LVC uniforms.

Among those times that you've gotta believe is when you're down 3-0 in the fifth inning of an extremely high-stakes game to a team that's every bit your equal.

And also when you've come back to take the lead, only to see that formidable opponent load the bases with no outs in its final at-bat and threaten to do serious damage to your championship dreams.

And sometimes when you believe ...

Reaching back for a little something extra when times were toughest, Lebanon Valley gave itself a shot at a championship on Saturday, rallying past Alvernia, 4-3, in the winners' bracket final of the Commonwealth Conference playoffs at LVC Softball Park.

The dramatic triumph, the by-product of senior DH Steffani Secola's go-ahead three-run homer in the fifth and ace pitcher Sam Derr's Houdini-like escape from a bases-juiced no-out jam in the seventh, lifts LVC into today's 1 p.m. conference title game against Stevenson, which upset Alvernia, 4-3 in nine innings, in an elimination game later Saturday.

Because the five-team tourney uses a double-elimination format, LVC would also play again Sunday afternoon for another shot at the championship if it is not victorious in the 1 p.

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m. game.

Not that LVC is prone to entertaining thoughts of defeat, as it displayed one more time on Saturday.

"We've come back from losing three or four times this season, so we never really put our heads down," said Secola, whose three-run blast to left-center in the bottom of the fifth capped a decisive four-run uprising. "We knew we were gonna come back and win."

"They've figured out a way all year long," said LVC head coach Stacey Hollinger. "We've been down 6-0 and they've never acted defeated or even felt defeated. They just continue to battle, and whatever happens happens.

"It's tougher to do that against great teams. And that's a great team (Alvernia). To be able to do that against a great team, I pat my kids on the back. I think they did a great job."

Now 31-5-1 and needing one more win to secure Commonwealth gold and an automatic NCAA Tournament berth, Valley appeared headed for a late-afternoon elimination game on Saturday after the hard-hitting Crusaders (34-8) dented Derr's often impenetrable armor with a single run in the fourth and two more in the top half of the fifth.

But when the going got tough, LVC's fighting spirit did the same.

Lebanon Valley catcher Emily Johnson, right, embraces pitcher Sam Derr after the final out of Saturday s Commonwealth Conference playoff win against Alvernia. Derr worked out of a bases-loaded no-out jam in the seventh inning to preserve a 4-3 victory. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG)

Jorie Aumiller got the bottom-of-the-fifth rally started with a one-out single and scored two batters later when Derr drilled a 3-2 pitch to right for an RBI single. Sandwiched between those two hits was Tessa Deardorff's infield hit on a hot shot to third.

Then, after Allie Hartman was retired on a deep fly to center, Secola stepped up and sent Alvernia starter Deanna Dungee's first pitch into orbit.

"I just kinda got up there (ticked) off and just hit the ball and hoped for the best," said Secola, who was retired on a weak grounder to the mound in her previous at-bat. "I was thinking too much the first few times I was up at bat. That time, I was just like, 'If I see a pitch (she liked), I'm gonna swing as hard as I can.' That's pretty much what I did."

"You can't be happier for a senior in that kind of spot, to just come up big. And on her home field," Hollinger said of Secola. "Her parents stand out beyond the fence right there, so for them to be actually see the ball... It almost hit 'em, I think."

But as deflating as Secola's homer was for Alvernia, it didn't knock all of the air out of it.

That was most apparent in the top of the seventh, when Aly Schilling led off with a double, Katie Manowski followed with a walk, and Miranda Peto proceeded to beat out a bunt to load the bases and prompt invisible "Danger" signs to begin flashing all around LVC.

And then fate intervened, kindly from Valley's perspective, when Samantha Penk sent a screaming line drive toward the hole between first and second, only to see Hartman snare it out of the air and then race back to first to double off Peto.

Two down, no harm done. And then three down and game over, after Derr, following a walk that reloaded the bases, induced cleanup hitter Danielle Kitchen to ground to shortstop Mary Readinger to end the game.

"There's a couple more gray hairs," Hollinger said with a smile, of the nerve-jangling seventh inning. "I was actually calm at that point, I just thought this group is gonna figure out a way to get it done. Having Sam Derr on the mound also gives you a little bit of a calming sense as a coach.

"You gotta feel bad for the Alvernia kid, she smoked it. And you can't blame their baserunner there. It was just an unfortunate play for them and worked out positively for us. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good."

And, well, better to believe than to not.

"My goodness, my heart was racing so fast," Secola said. "But I know Sam can get out of it, so I wasn't worried."

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